Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS)
3.4 out of 5 stars.
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Working at Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS): 11 Reviews

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United States11 reviews

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2.5Work-Life Balance
4.0Pay & Benefits
4.2Job Security & Advancement
2.8Management
3.3Culture

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High stress, good benefits, lower pay

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High stress, lower pay, great benefits, not the best management where bureaucracy and attitudes get in the way of work. Great coworkers leave because they do not feel supported. Management acts like everything is perfect and nothing can be modified or changed. Low retention with high turnover is a constant. When an office has less people, the people left over have to work that much harder and take over whatever others did or did not do. The promotions are based on time put in vs merit. Each office is run differently. The giant reasons you should work for the Department of Child Safety is if you care about children, want to help families, want to gain a lot of skills, and you are great at conflict resolution and time management.

Pros

Benefits, the impact of your work, investigative work experience

Cons

Stress, lack of supportive management, low pay
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excellent place to work

Worked as an ICWA Specialist and had a very good experience at DCS. The Management changed however the changes where generally research based. DCS stayed up to date and provided training for staff.

Pros

communication

Cons

office politics
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Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) insights

Based on 11 survey responses
What people like
  • Feeling of personal appreciation
  • Ability to learn new things
Areas for improvement
  • Fair pay for job
  • General feeling of work happiness
  • Overall satisfaction

Coworkers

Your coworkers are always willing to help you. There is a lot of typing. But overall it is good experience. Someone is there to show next steps and how to enter and process stuff. You are ever alone.

Pros

Food

Cons

Risk working til 3 am after a stressful removal
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Wouldn't recommend

The burnout rate is high. My case load is high. Over time feels mandatory. The Department cares less about your work load or you as a person and more about meeting numbers.

Pros

Benefits and health insurance

Cons

Stress and case load
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busy job, with different appointments, time crunches and tasks to complete

A typical day at my job includes reviewing all emails and voice messages, and retuning phone calls, and emails. I follow up with services pertaining to my clients and the children. I conduct home visits to ensure the children are safe. I ensure permanency for the children.

Pros

you create your own work schedule

Cons

no time for lunches, no support
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Unfortunately not as great as i wish it would have been :(

The caseloads are ridiculously high, therefore too much work to be done for only your 40 hours and one doesnt truly have the time each family deserves. Plus one end up working for free because of how much work needs to get done. Upper management doesnt care about employees, they're just another body.
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Hard work, great coworkers, horrible management

Worked as ongoing CM and Investigations. 1 Ongoing worker does the work of 2+people. In 6 months in ongoing,I was the most senior case manager in my unit in my office. Investigators last a long time as Investigations is hard work, but it’s reasonable, but new cases come in waves. The work is rewarding and intense, but ultimately draining. Self care is critically important. Yo have to take 1 day off a month to prevent burn out. Your coworkers will be the most interesting people and come from diverse education and work backgrounds Half have BSWs, and the rest are psych, bio, nursing, CJ, and Probation backgrounds. Ultimately it’s a state agency driven by numbers and there are few good supervisors and PMs. Most are not well trained in management . It’s a great step I learning how the system works and the traumas children go through, how to provide services to these children i need and reunite them with parents if possible

Pros

Flexible schedules and diverse set of duties and positions

Cons

Not for the faint of heart, you have to be self motivating and have a strong constitution.
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Benefits are great!

When I first started working for CMDP I had no healthcare background and in four years it's made me gain more knowledge working in the Healthcare field as well as working with high efficient case loads.

Pros

I'm able to work 4/10's

Cons

Job doesn't offer any OT or raises!
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Hardest job I ever had

I learned more about writing case notes and court reports than I learned about helping families. Overall, it was a positive experience, but it is becoming more difficult to find a work-life balance. The management style has changed to micro-management and using a lot of paper tracking tools, which may work great in factories and retail, but not so much in social work. I'm also very tired of being seen as the "bad guy" as soon as I introduce myself as a DCS Specialist. It makes working with the families very difficult.
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DCS Org review

DCS often goes through many changes, it is often hard to keep up with the amount of turnover, it is in large part due to the starting entry level income that is provided. Higher level management often are inconsistent about the way we are perceived. This job is done for love of serving my community, it has its up and downs, but it provided opportunity for advancement.
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Rewarding

Leadership plays a huge part in managing a successful team. DCS does a great job at providing necessary trainings and there is room for growth. Great stepping stone for social work career.
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Overall rating

Based on 11 reviews

Ratings by category

2.5 out of 5 stars for Work/Life Balance
4.0 out of 5 stars for Compensation/Benefits
4.2 out of 5 stars for Job Security/Advancement
2.8 out of 5 stars for Management
3.3 out of 5 stars for Culture

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